Abstract

This study was conducted to compare, contrast and analyze the impacts of Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRCs) in countries that have used it to seek and promote national reconciliation among its people who have suffered any injury, hurt, damage, grievance or have in any other manner been adversely affected by abuses and violations of their human rights. Most countries have experienced civil wars, apartheid, military coup d’état and or numerous attempted coups. These coups and civil wars have come with extensive human rights violations and abuses. Unconstitutional governments and rebel abuses ensuing from military coups provide a platform for grave and prolonged violation of the rights of many people. It is, however, worth noting that the fundamental human rights and freedoms of many people are also violated or infringed upon during periods of constitutional rule. The issue about violations and abuses of human rights has raised serious oncerns over the past twenty years. Throughout the contemporary world, Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRCs) have become a decisive element of the responses of states, notably those going through political transition, to serious acts of human rights violations and impunity occasioned by a history of prolonged conflicts and enmity. With a comparison of the Truth and Reconciliation commissions (TRCs) of South Africa, Ghana, Sierra Leone and others, this document studies the importance of Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRCs) in general and whether a TRC can be singled out as one of the best, if not the best healing process.